Page 35 of When I Accidentally Summoned a Demon

“No.” He points directly at me. “The giant new man needs context.”

She blows out a huff. “I don’t think the giant new man needs anything.”

“I assure you,” I tell her, “I am interested.”

She turns a betrayed look on me.

Robby beams. “See?”

“You’re both already exhausting.”

He turns toward me again. “This woman did everything.” He gestures broadly around the shop.

Vesper sighs, kneading her brow. “Here we go.”

“She is a networking force of nature. Half the suppliers in here were tiny businesses nobody had heard of when she found them. Etsy shops. Local artists. People making candles in garages and jewelry at their kitchen tables. Somehow she finds the best underrated creators before everyone else does.”

“I research.”

He leans in, lowering his voice to a secretive tone. “She stalks the internet.”

“I research extensively,” she corrects.

“And then,” Robby ignores her, “she sweet-talks them into wholesale prices they absolutely should not agree to.”

Vesper straightens. “I negotiate.”

“You charm.”

“I negotiate charmingly.”

I face my savior. “This I believe.”

The corner of her mouth lifts, betraying her. Robby points at me as if I have just provided testimony before a tribunal. “Thank you.”

“Traitor,” Vesper mutters.

“And when charm fails, she barters. You should see her. If somebody won’t budge on a discount? Suddenly they get first claim on testing bottles of whatever seasonal coffee syrup she’s developing, or she’s connecting them to some local printer they need.”

“That isn’t bribery,” she chimes in, “That’s networking.”

He takes a step to the side and sets his hands on his hips, all serious. “You sent Hannah three bottles of blackberry-sage syrup before you negotiated the fall candle order.”

“She liked the syrup.” I register a playful smile. She is enjoying this.

“Hannah lowered the price,” says Robby.

“Coincidence.”

“Her syrups are so popular, customers threatened violence if we didn’t bring back smoked vanilla-cardamom.”

A breath snags in my throat. “I trust these were empty threats?”

Robby makes a grunting sound. “They did a petition. Vesper nailed it to the supplier’s door like the 95 Theses!” I must research this reference.

He turns back toward me.

“She found this building when it looked like tetanus had opened a storefront.”